“I am Kusunoki Ichinosuke. My name is listed as Ichinojo on this side.”

He spoke politely so I replied with an equal degree of politeness.

“Ichino wasn’t your surname?”

Marina exclaimed in surprise after all this time. Now that I think about it, I’ve not introduced myself to this girl. Carol calls me Ichino so it’s likely she misunderstood that as my surname.

I looked at Suzuki’s job.

【Holy Warrior Lv39】

Wow, so cool.

Holy Warrior huh.

How does a person become one?

I’ll try probing him slightly.

“You said that you’re a hero but is Hero your job?”

“No. To be exact, it is a job called Holy Warrior. I’m level 39.”

“Ooh, Holy Warrior … is it perhaps from a blessing?”

“No, Holy Warrior is a highest tier job. I didn’t obtain the job from a blessing.”

“Ooh, what blessing did you get?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

Suzuki smiled with his shining white teeth.

So he won’t give me that much information huh.

Blessings are a sort of trick or a trump card.

Even I will not talk about my own blessing with this person who I still do not know if he is my ally or not.

” … Oh well. Since it’s a rare chance to meet a fellow Japanese, how about it? Do you want to have a meal together?”

Actually, my plan was to finish our meal before sunset but due to the inspiration I got to use street performance to gather people after listening to the intelligence Carol gathered, in the end, we have not had our dinner yet.

I was feeling hungry as well.

“I’m sorry, I plan to head to the next town once my business is over.”

“Hmm … what business?”

“Well. Could you please release the 3 slaves there?”

Ha?

This idiot, what’s he saying out of the blue.

“What do you plan to do? Are you part of an anti-slavery movement? I understand your feelings since we’re both Japanese but you have 3 slaves following you too.”

“That’s due to their own will. I intend to give the 3 of them their freedom if they wish for it.”

Saying that, Suzuki glanced at the 3 people standing behind him.

A woman dressed in nun garments. A swordswoman-like woman. And a short girl holding onto a plush doll.

Their jobs were 【Apprentice Practitioner】, 【Swordsman】 and 【Shaman】. Looks like a balanced party.

“I am an Apprentice Practitioner but I was saved when I was caught by a slave merchant. I want to remain as a slave until I repay this favor.”

“I participated in the Swordsmanship Tournament as a gladiator representative and lost to Suzuki. I unreasonably asked him to purchase me. I decided that the day I take off this collar is the day I beat Suzuki.”

” … I decided to follow Ko-oniichan after he saved my village.”

This guy, he’s seriously been doing hero-like stuff.

Where did this protagonist come from?

“If that’s the case then it’s the same on my side. Haru and Carol as well, I intend to remove their slave collar if the 2 of them wish for it.”

When I said that, Haru and Carol gave affirmative nods.

“What about the magic-user female there? In fact, I’ve been asking around since daytime and I’ve heard that you bully her by taking her important item and forcibly make her do street performance-like stunts to earn gold.”

I’d like to correct him. It’s not street performance-like, it is street performance itself.

Although, if I say that then the conversation would become seriously tricky so I didn’t say it.

Just as I was thinking of keeping silent and just listen to him, as expected, that girl stood up.

“I also do not wish to fight but if you do not agree then I have no choice.”

Saying so, Suzuki drew his sword.

“Alright. But, it would trouble the surrounding customers if we fight here. Go outside.”

“That’s true … that’s right. Let’s continue outside.”

Suzuki and the 3 girls left the shop.

I —

“Thank you for waiting, four servings of seasonal pasta.”

I ate the pasta that I’ve been waiting for that had just arrived.

I gave it a try and asked for the seasonal pasta but I didn’t even know which season we were currently in. Since it’s easy to tolerate, it might be spring?”

Placed on the pasta was boiled wild grass that tasted like spinach.

I encouraged the 3 girls to eat as well and the 4 of us proceeded with our meal.

“Ichino-sama, is it fine to not go?”

“Fortifying myself with a meal comes first.”

“I want to try fighting with that Swordsman girl.”

“Erm, Ichino-san, mask … ah, it’s delicious.”

Just as the 4 of us were peacefully eating our pasta,

“You bastard — what are you doing!”

Suzuki with a bright red face came back into the guild.

“What? I’m having a meal. Is that it? Is Hero a job where they interfere with people’s meals during meal time?”

When I said that, the bright red-faced Suzuki sighed and relaxed his shoulders.

” … I’ll wait for you to finish your meal.”

“Rather, you guys eat too. Since we’ve added 4 servings. This pasta is delicious you know?”

“No, actually I have a wheat allergy so …”

“Wheat allergy would be troublesome in this world. Since bread seem to be the staple.”

“I have potatoes in my item bag so I have those as staple — wait that’s not important!”

“Alright. It’s just a match right? So, what would you do if I lose?”

“Give this command to the girls. Ignore all previous orders, honestly say if you want to stop being a slave or not. If any of them want to stop being a slave then I’ll have you release them.”

I see. If that’s the case then I don’t have any demerits.

I have a feeling everything will be resolved if I just give that order immediately.

“Incidentally, what if I win?”

“As long as your companions don’t interfere, it doesn’t matter whatever order you give me.”

“Only 1 order?”

“Any number is alright too.”

There’s no way he would lose. That’s the composure I felt from Suzuki.

“Alright, I’m fine with that. Let’s have a match.”

Finishing my pasta, I said that.

“So, shall we use rock, paper, scissors to determine the match?”

“What are you saying! A match is —”

“Something that can only be resolved with violence? So Heroes are like that.”

” … Fine.”

Seems like Suzuki accepted rock, paper, scissors as the match style.

If we were going to resolve it with rock, paper, scissors then there wasn’t a need to wait for us to finish our meal but well, it’s my harassment for treating me as a villain.

“However, the winner will be the one who wins 3 times. Is that alright?”

Suzuki added on a condition.

I replied with an “Okay”.

“I forgot to mention but Holy Warrior is a job with high Luck among the number of jobs that Goddess-sama can bestow. To the extent of being able to rival the Philanderer job that only has its Luck stat as its saving grace. You might have a chance of winning if it’s a single match but if it’s multiple matches then you have no way of winning. This is what it means to fall into a tactician’s trap!”

— 10 seconds later.

“Why! Why can’t I win! What the hell did you do!?”

“What did I do? I’ve only been playing rock, paper, scissors?”

However, I just slightly altered my jobs. Adding on Philanderer and Hunter, my luck stat became considerably high.

“Damn it … ”

Suzuki collapsed in despair.

I’ve achieved my objective so perhaps it’s time I resolve the misunderstanding.

“Ah, Haru, Carol and Malina too while we’re at it. It’s an order. Ignore all previous orders, honestly say if you want to stop being a slave or not.”

I ordered the 3 of them. I tried to faithfully stick to Suzuki’s words as much as possible.

“I’ve said it before but I don’t intend to stop being master’s slave.”

“Carol too. Carol is Ichino-sama’s slave under Carol’s own will.”

Haru and Carol announced.

“I … I, that …”

I took out the mask from my item bag and passed it to Malina.

Malina cheerfully put on the mask,

“Don’t misunderstand, Ichino. You may be my temporary owner but the only owner I acknowledge is my ally, Kannon. You’ve never had the right to have me accompany you in the first place.”

and said so with a cheerful laugh.

“There you have it.”

I triumphantly said and Suzuki’s face paled.

“So, sorry. It was all my misunderstanding. Please forgive me.”

He showcased a splendid Japanese I’m sorry style … in other words a dogeza.

I tapped Suzuki’s shoulder and gently said “Heroes shouldn’t perform such an apology method.”.

“So, who did you hear from? The one who labelled me as a villain. You got a tip right?”

” … I can’t say.”

“You said that you’ll listen to whatever I say right? So will you tell me?”

Tsukinohono

GodTurtleOm

MC is the riajuu, he has Haru, and he’s pretty much agreed to Carol once she’s a bit older. Suzuki is just a normally chill guy with a miniharem that he can’t actually touch. (minor spoiler: their individual circumstances are explained in the first few of the next chapter.)

Light

hayka

Kannon is the legal owner ofMalina who she acknowledges as her owner. I wonder if she knows that her owner is a demon? Is she being manipulated? Why did Kanno allow Malina to go with our MC? So many questions….,,